Yahoo Autos DeLorean Alpha5 reservation process is as funky as the gullwing sedan
Clubbing your fellow car shopper and any errant baby seals over the head to secure a reservation for a car is a new thing in the U.S. Remember three years ago, when you'd drive to a dealer, find something you liked, and take it home? What a time. Today, the New DeLorean company is attempting to organize the barbarism when it comes to the Alpha5 electric sedan. Knowing that every reservation period leads to a free-for-all of selling or swapping reservations and positions like sports teams trading draft picks, DeLorean brought it all in-house. First, to have a chance at getting a reservation, one must pay $88 for a lifetime membership in the Alphas Club. We're told there are other exclusive benefits for members but not told what they are.
The membership sign-up site is run by NFT IQ, so, yes, there are NFTs involved. After paying the $88, "Alphas Club members have exclusive access to secure their place in line on the DeLorean Exchange, by purchasing a randomized production slot for $2,500." That $2,500 is actually for the purchase of an NFT linked to a build slot. Note the word "randomized." The good news is that if your $2,500 is accepted, you're guaranteed to win a slot. The bad news is that your NFT might pull build slot #10 or build slot #3,789.
DeLorean told Motor Authority the $2,500 price holds until March 12. After that, the reservation NFT will cost $3,500, and after that, the price goes up $500 for every additional 500 reservations. For example, if 1,000 reservations come in by March 12, build slots 1,001 to 1,500 will cost $4,000 apiece, slots 1,501 to 2,000 will cost $4,500 apiece, and so on. Using this example, the final 500 slots would charge $6,000 per. If fewer reservations came in before March 12, the final slots would cost more.
